Is CSUMB the Right Shade of Green?

Blake Northey, Staff Reporter

Blake_Northey@csumb.edu

May 8, 2008

CSU Monterey Bay (CSUMB)

students are concerned the

CSUMB administration may make

a costly environmental decision

to landscape the campus with

attractive but water thirsty nonnative

plants, making CSUMB

green but not the right shade of

green from an environmentalist’s

point of view.

Brandi McClellan, CSUMB

Service Learning Student Leader,

has developed a petition to

encourage school authorities to

incorporate native plants into

the landscaping plan. According

to McClellan, the Return of the

Natives Restoration Research

Project (RON), a branch of

CSUMB’s Watershed Institute,

had plans to do a native planting

on campus in celebration of Earth

Day but school authorities denied

permission for the planting.

This denial triggered McClellan

and three friends to develop a

petition calling for CSUMB to

plant environmentally friendly

native plants.

“There is more concern about

high recruitment for next semester,

than for water quantity and soil

erosion prevention,” McClellan

said in regard to the CSUMB

landscaping plans. The petition

has garnered 75 signatures so

far in support of incorporating

native plants into the CSUMB

landscaping project.

“More than anything I don’t

want to see more lawn or invasive

plants because they require massive

amounts of water in comparison

to drought resistant, time tested

natives,” McClellan said.

Although McClellan has not seen

the CSUMB Landscaping Master

Plan, she has heard that CSUMB

incorporated native plants into the

plan. But, she is concerned the plan

“isn’t being followed as well as it

could be and should be.”

Student questions about the

university’s landscaping plans

can be directed to Associate

Vice President for Campus

Development and Operations,

Tony Boles, who is in charge of

campus landscaping. According

to Boles, the landscaping of

CSUMB is still in an early stage

of development.

“Currently we are in the

embryonic stage of a landscape

master plan. Right now, we are

simply trying to identify various

levels of effort necessary to finalize

our ongoing landscape maintenance

contract,” said Bates.

Boles also said there are plans for

an open house in early May to cover

the topic of “Landscaping: Impact

on Recruitment and Retention,” a

webcast developed by the Society

for College and University Planning

(SCUP). According to the SCUP

website, there is a correlation

between recruitment and retention

of students and the eye-catching

landscaping of the colleges and

universities who are competing to

enroll those freshman students.

Boles plans to be at the open

house to “discuss our current efforts

on how we propose to proceed,

in an inclusive method, with the

development of a comprehensive

balanced approach to the issues

of landscaping here at CSUMB.”

According to Boles, “no decisions

of any kind have been made

regarding landscape.”

These assurances may be a

welcome relief to students with

strong views on the university’s

pursuit of “going green.”

According to Josh Williams,

Earth Science System and Policy

(ESSP) senior “native plants can

be landscaped” and Williams

believes that the presentation of

native plants have the potential to

be attractive too.

When asked about the CSUMB

landscaping project, Andrew Sturn,

ESSP senior, said “CSUMB has a

chance to make a name for itself;

this is the school’s opportunity to be

a model campus for being green.”

CSUMB students and

community members who are

concerned about what the

university’s shade of green is are

encouraged to attend the open

house and share their views about

CSUMB landscaping plans.